Artist Spotlight: Violet
Violet is a well established member at Artbox, having been involved now for nearly two and a half years. Throughout this time she has produced an incredibly diverse body of artwork, varying from striking portraits to abstract landscapes. Although sometimes feeling a pressure to create, Violet does indeed find solace in the act of making art- "It makes me feel happy.” A feeling that is certainly shared by any viewer lucky enough to come across any one of her pieces.
A Vision in Pink
One thing that is particularly compelling about Violet’s work is that she has not confined herself to a particular style or medium. Her vast portfolio ranges from from artworks made using acrylic paint, oil paint, oil pastels, posca pens, and she has even explored working in sculpture and ceramics.
In the past, Violet’s process of making art was very quick, focusing on making fast expressive marks. However, currently, she is taking the process of creating art a bit slower, at times taking up to two weeks to finish a piece. “My brain refuels. I like to take a step back and rethink. Sometimes I’ll rub something out and then put it back in.”
A key figure that consistently influences Violet in her artistic process is the work of William Tyler - a Dallas-born artist and illustrator that Violet discovered on Pinterest, her main means of finding inspiration in the preparatory stages of creating her art. To Violet, “[Tyler] takes art to a different level,” finding his paintings of skulls particularly stimulating- often encouraging her to tap into her “dark side”. The times where Violet’s work is most reminiscent of Tyler are in her works in portraiture - such as in ‘Lion’.
Lion
Aside from the honeyed yellow of the paper as support, for Violet’s ‘Lion’, the Savannah is reimagined as saturated with pastel-like colours as opposed to more stereotypical beige hues. The painting features the profile of a lion with focused, set eyes looking out beyond the viewer at a fellow feline or perhaps even unfortunate prey. The deep curve of a light pink nose, outlined in black, reminiscent of a Picasso profile. A wash of fluffy blue and lilac clouds surround our central figure, mimicking the colours featured in the mane creating a dream like quality.
‘Lion’ was one of the Violet’s first explorations of portraiture - an art form she has maintained throughout her time at Artbox. More recently, Violet has created a portrait inspired by Michelangelo’s David as well as one or two portraits of our own Artbox instructors!
The two portraits below, although different in style and composition, have been part of the same development in Violet’s technique. Most of Violet’s work in the past have focused on dark, moody landscapes applied with thick layers of acrylic paint. Contrastly, she has begun to move towards experimenting in portraiture, using images of volunteers in the studio and inspiration from other artist’s work. A Man With No Name displays half a face in shadow and half exposed to light, giving the portrait a sense of perceptable depth. The One with Many Faces, as the title suggests, portrays a serene face almost hidden amid an array of shapes and deep colour palette.
At the beginning of her artistic career, Violet was very resistant to the use of colour, stating ‘ I would normally work in black but now I’m starting to work in different bright colours.’ Violet has also been inspired by the works of the prominent British abstract painter and printmaker Howard Hodgkins. “He can do art differently. His [style of] art is the kind of art I like doing when I’m not doing my portrait stuff.”
The group of paintings below are exemplary of Violet’s typical style and preference of landscapes that fill the page with colour and overlapping details. Finished with thick layers of paint that create overlapping texture, Violet turned to her main source of inspiration - Howard Hodgkins. Like Hodkins, Violet uses layer upon layer in short, fast strokes on the page. The Secret Garden evokes images of a childhood garden full of colour and excitement. The Penguin and The Mountain comprise of much darker, almost sinister palettes, although the former contains a light-hearted addition of a penguin in the bottom left corner of the work.
One aspect of abstraction, reminiscent in the work of Hodgkin that Violet has also incorporated into her own artwork is the feeling of immersion. “It feels like you can go inside and experience different bits [of the piece].” The absorbing nature of Violet’s work certainly rings true in abstract pieces such as Abstract 1 and 2.
Abstract 1
In Abstract 1 we are exposed to a palette of sanguine tones. Gashes of pink, orange, vermillion strike the paper, juxtaposed with hues of murky blue. Two centralised black strokes punctuate the artwork, accentuating the bold streaks of colour. To the right, a tree is growing with spiked, jutting branches - inspired by African trees.
Abstract 2
The erubescent tones featured in Abstract 1 are continued in Abstract 2. It is a much busier scene than Abstract 1, still with the distinctive bold strokes, however this time they are scratched across the painting which has the effect of blending the darker blues with the redder, earthier tones. One motif Violet seems to be particularly fond of in her artworks is the use of trees (appearing in Abstract 1, Garden, and Culpeper Community) and Abstract 2 encompasses this motif.
Both Abstract 1 and Abstract 2 were created with acrylic paint with layerings of oil pastel.
Violet exudes a real sense of pride about her finished work (and quite rightly) - “People call it a talking piece.” One can certainly look forward to looking at (and talking about) any later works on the horizon!
You can see Violet’s work in person at One of a Kind, our first studio exhibition in two years that will be running from the 19th November-3rd December 2021: